Travelling to Mars and deep into space could kill astronauts by destroying their guts, finds NASA-funded study

Travelling long distances in space could destroy astronauts’ guts, according to a major new NASA-funded study.

The research raises substantial red flags about the possibility of humans taking journeys to places such as Mars.

It follows previous studies that suggested such journeys could do significant damage to people’s brains and might age them prematurely.

The new research subjected mice to the same kinds of bombardment by galactic cosmic radiation that would affect humans if they were on long space journeys.

That radiation could cause damage to the gastrointestinal tissue that would lead to long-term functional alterations. And the study also raises concerns that those astronauts would be at high risk of developing tumours in their stomach and colon.

Starting Monday, Austin restaurants and food businesses have to come up with alternatives to tossing extra food in the trash.

The city hopes businesses donate the extra food to those in need, but they could also give it to local farms or compost it. It's part of the Universal Recycling Ordinance, which the city hopes will help reach its Zero Waste by 2040 goal.

The ordinance also requires business owners to educate employees regularly, have informational signs about the effort and submit an online Organic Diversion Plan each year.

A 2018 RAND report on health promotion and disease prevention has painted a grim picture of the military’s physical fitness and sleep standards.

The study, featuring roughly 18,000 randomly selected participants across each of the service branches, showed that almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or obese, based on the military’s use of body mass index as a measuring standard.

While the number of overweight service members is a cause for concern, it correlates with the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States, where, as of 2015, one in three young adults are considered too fat to enlist, creating a difficult environment for recruiters to find suitable candidates for military service.

Broken down by service, the 2018 report lists the Army as the branch accounting for the highest percentage of overweight troops, with 69.4 percent of soldiers falling under this category.

The Army was followed by the Coast Guard (67.8 percent), Navy (64.6 percent), Air Force (63.1 percent) and Marine Corps (60.9 percent).

Back when I served my Country, we had the "fat boy program". We had to test yearly...Jog about a mile, push-ups, etc. If failure to perform, automatic diet and exercise 'till re-tested. They'd beat you with a jump-rope if you failed again. We were men, had pride, and were kept in shape, true soldiers ready to defend America.I can see Military being called prejudice and the weight requirements raised to accommodate the overweight "soldiers" who eat 4 free meals a day at the chow hall, And drink .25 cent pictures of beer all evening.(The beer was a great deal )

(NBC) - Soon, those popular credit cards with enticing rewards may not be accepted everywhere you want them to be.

For years, retailers like Target, Amazon and Home Depot have been fighting for the right to not accept certain Visa and Mastercards. Now their long-running lawsuit against the card companies and major banks may be close a resolution.

Retailers say the issue is that rewards cards often carry high interchange or "swipe fees" that they have to pay.

Home Depot told NBC News in a statement:"We and other merchants are pushing for the right to reject rewards cards that carry high interchange fees," Home Depot responded in a statement. "The problem with the high interchange fees is that the end result is higher prices for consumers."

92% of all credit card purchases in the United States are made with rewards cards. Currently, credit card companies dictate that stores must "honor all cards" from Visa and Mastercard, regardless of the perks.

"The potential ramifications for consumers are huge," said Kimberly Palmer with NerdWallet. "If you go into a retailer and you can't use the credit card that's in your wallet, that will be very frustrating."

Visa and Mastercard say consumers should be able to pay with any of their cards without restriction.

If cards with high interchange fees are used in 92% of purchases, it seems like those fees have to already be built into the end price we pay, right?

But retailers are wanting to jockey around and offer lower prices (or not raise prices) in order to be more competitive. Retailers should have the right, just as shoppers have the right to go somewhere else. And it's just me, but the CC companies shouldn't have that much power. D&D Decentralize and Devolve.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" Voltaire

(NBC) - Soon, those popular credit cards with enticing rewards may not be accepted everywhere you want them to be.

For years, retailers like Target, Amazon and Home Depot have been fighting for the right to not accept certain Visa and Mastercards. Now their long-running lawsuit against the card companies and major banks may be close a resolution.

Retailers say the issue is that rewards cards often carry high interchange or "swipe fees" that they have to pay.

Home Depot told NBC News in a statement:"We and other merchants are pushing for the right to reject rewards cards that carry high interchange fees," Home Depot responded in a statement. "The problem with the high interchange fees is that the end result is higher prices for consumers."

92% of all credit card purchases in the United States are made with rewards cards. Currently, credit card companies dictate that stores must "honor all cards" from Visa and Mastercard, regardless of the perks.

"The potential ramifications for consumers are huge," said Kimberly Palmer with NerdWallet. "If you go into a retailer and you can't use the credit card that's in your wallet, that will be very frustrating."

Visa and Mastercard say consumers should be able to pay with any of their cards without restriction.

If cards with high interchange fees are used in 92% of purchases, it seems like those fees have to already be built into the end price we pay, right?

Not necessarily, it says 92% are rewards cards, it does not give a stat for which percentage charge the inflated interchange fees.

*** LOOKING FOR YPS #17 & 18s. Please contact me if you have any for sale.***

Bizarre Cosmic Rays Are Shooting Out Of Antarctica And Physicists Can't Explain It

Just over ten years ago, NASA-affiliated researchers set out to observe cosmic rays showering down on Earth from above. During the experiments in Antarctica, physicists found something unexplainable, something that could change everything we think we know about physics.

The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) balloon experiment began in 2006 when the balloon spent a month hovering over Antarctica’s ice. Using sensors, ANITA began detecting high energy neutrinos interacting with the ice sheet below.

During ANITA’s time in the Antarctic, it detected never before seen “upward-pointing cosmic-ray-like events.” The rays detected had horizontal planes of polarization, which may suggest they didn’t originate in space. The detection of these events means a new type of particle may have been evading detection by sophisticated particle accelerators since we began using sophisticated particle accelerators.

(NBC) - Soon, those popular credit cards with enticing rewards may not be accepted everywhere you want them to be.

For years, retailers like Target, Amazon and Home Depot have been fighting for the right to not accept certain Visa and Mastercards. Now their long-running lawsuit against the card companies and major banks may be close a resolution.

Retailers say the issue is that rewards cards often carry high interchange or "swipe fees" that they have to pay.

Home Depot told NBC News in a statement:"We and other merchants are pushing for the right to reject rewards cards that carry high interchange fees," Home Depot responded in a statement. "The problem with the high interchange fees is that the end result is higher prices for consumers."

92% of all credit card purchases in the United States are made with rewards cards. Currently, credit card companies dictate that stores must "honor all cards" from Visa and Mastercard, regardless of the perks.

"The potential ramifications for consumers are huge," said Kimberly Palmer with NerdWallet. "If you go into a retailer and you can't use the credit card that's in your wallet, that will be very frustrating."

Visa and Mastercard say consumers should be able to pay with any of their cards without restriction.

If cards with high interchange fees are used in 92% of purchases, it seems like those fees have to already be built into the end price we pay, right?

Foods Co (owned by Kroger) just recently stopped accepting Visa cards altogether. I have never heard of anybody refusing Visa cards before. Since my best rewards cards are Visa, maybe it is related to this.

Ultimately it doesn't matter, rewards and miles are just a play/ploy to get people to spend more, the costs are spread out. Do debit cards have rewards yet? I've seen my CU attempt to give rewards, like use your debit card 20 times this month and we will give you a $5 gift card. It would only make sense that the whole rewards fiasco would begin to change once CC companies follow the path of greed. I mean it's a club, you join the rewards club, they skim from the retailer, the retailer just charges you more, you make interest payments, customer gets the convenience of paying later, or living beyond their means. I got into using CC quite a bit more for a few years and have backed off using them. I'm seeing rewards for almost everything these days.

This is interesting that stores are not taking certain cards, I like it, I like it allot! We have a union shop store in town, it's pretty big, several locations, they do not take CC, only debit, they are competitive on pricing.

My bank pays me 4.01% interest on my checking account balance when i use my debit card at least 15 times a month ($5 min purchase). I opened a second checking account with them (2 debit cards now) and have stopped using my CC.A side benefit is that Ive reduced my spending and socked as much as possible into my 2 checking accounts, I withdrew all of my CU money and deposited it into my bank checking. Works for me